U-Town Swing Camp

Welcome to the second edition of Uppsala’s new dance camp, U-Town Swing Camp! Join us in the Swedish spring, 15-17 april, for a weekend of classes and social dancing with awesome bands, and teachers who are among the most sought after social dancers in Europe. This year will incorporate some solo jazz in all the tracks so you really get to work on all the aspects of your dancing, including moving your own body!

VOLUNTEERING:
Help out during the parties and get reduced entrance fee or "fika"!
Take a dance break during the night and help out in the café, at the entrance or in the cloak room, get to know new people, and get reduced entrance fee or "fika"! Sign up here. Help out one hour and you only pay half the entance fee or get a "fika", help put two hours and you don´t pay the entrance fee or get 2 "fikas", help out tree hours and you don´t pay the entrance fee and get 2 "fikas".
Thanks for helping out!

SOCIAL DANCING:
We will have two awesome social dancing nights and a tea dance. Entry to the social dancing is included in the camp price.
Friday: 20.00-01.00, at Pharmen. Band: The Rhythm Baby-Makers (Uppsala)! Also a lindy hop taster class with Joris & Elze which is free for all participants of the camp!
Saturday: 20.00-01.00, at Grand. Band: Gentlemen & Gangsters (Göteborg)! Also a Jack'n'Jill competition where you can win passes to next year's U-Town Swing Camp, among other things!
Sunday: 17.00-22.00, at Grand café (upstairs). Band: The Swingin' Shrimps (Uppsala)! Lindy hop tea dance 17-19, then our regular balboa social night takes over until 22.

CLASSES:
There will be 4 levels: Beginners-Intermediate, Intermediate, combined Intermediate-Advanced/Advanced, and a smaller Invitational level. The classes will take place during the Saturday and Sunday. There will be 8 hours of classes and each level will get time with all the teachers, which means that there will be some solo jazz in all the tracks (super good for your body awareness and rhythm!).

LEVEL REQUIREMENTS:

Beginners-Intermediate: You have taken a beginner’s course in lindy hop and know your basic 6- and 8-counts and partner charleston, and you can mix them freely on the dance floor. You have discovered the joy of social dancing and want to work on becoming a better dancer, including working on your technique in the basics and in your connection and not just learn new moves.

Intermediate: You have been dancing lindy hop for around a year or more. You take classes regularly, and maybe you have attended a camp or two somewhere. You go to all the social dances in your area and have no problem with getting your dancing to feel smooth with any partner, and you’re beginning to get comfortable with dancing to the faster songs as well.

Intermediate-Advanced/Advanced: You have been dancing lindy hop for several years and you’re considered a pretty good dancer. You like learning new cool moves as well as working on your absolute basics. On the social dance floor you experiment with the moves and steps you already know, mixing them up and creating new ones. You listen actively to the music when you dance and try to make your dancing match what you hear in the music.

Invitational: If you think you are a lot better than the advanced level but did not get invited to the invitational level, sign up for the IA/A level and write a comment saying you think you belong in invitational. You will get an email asking you to describe your dancing experience and to send us a video of yourself dancing.

TEACHERS:Joris & Elze

Elze Visnevskyte comes from Vilnius, Lithuania, growing and teaching at Hoppers' Dance Studio. She has been discovering a variety of dances - from old Renaissance to traditional folk dances until she found Lindy Hop or maybe it was Lindy Hop that found her. Elze spent a lot of time acting in theatre, so she takes a part of theatre to her dancing and improvisation. She values creativity, authentic way of dancing, musicality and playfulness in a dance and spreads it to her students.
For her Lindy Hop is much more than only leading and following, it’s dancing, trying to feel your partner and having a great time that’s important. She is also known for her contagious energy and loud laugh.

Joris Focquaert comes from Ghent, Belgium. He discovered the Lindy Hop in Copenhagen when he was studying at the Commedia School for mime & physical theatre. Working with the art of clowning, he takes this to his jazz dances & dance performances. In his classes, Joris tries to share his best of ideas. He is one of the starting figures of swing dance school 'Crazy Legs' in Ghent and vernacular jazz dance troupe 'the Dipsy Doodles'.

Elze & Joris (Vilnius/Ghent) have been dancing the Lindy Hop together since 2012. They have been astonishing different crowds far on end, in and outside the swing dance community: in dance classes, during performances and during the swing dance competitions all over the world... with full success! They are often recongnised as shiny sparkles on the dancefloor, very expressive and with strong emphasis on authentic jazz & improvisation. As a pair, they have been on the teachers board at Crazy Legs Dance School (Ghent, Belgium) and Hoppers' Dance studio (Vilnius, Lithuania). Today they keep on working internationally at different dance workshops. Come and be inspired by these four hot feet!

Jay & Ira

Ira started Lindy Hop in 2006 and found that this is the best way to express yourself, have fun, meet people and discover the world.
She first found her way into partner dancing as a Follower with a capital F, but since then has found the thrill of her own interpretation and improvisation.
She prefers to dance for, and with her partner rather than the audience and doesn't go for flashy dancing. She follows as much as possible and she's amazing at it.
She finds ways to have the most comfortable, joyful and cohesive dance: "Listen to the music, your partner, and your body. Follow these guidelines and you'll have the best dances ever!"
During the last year she has been teaching Lindy Hop and Blues in Germany, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Iceland, Sweden and Ukraine.

Jay started partner dance in 2001. Lindy Hop. A zest of Balboa, quite a lot of Charleston, a little bit of blues, and a fair amount of other partner dance.
Working on their respective styles and techniques allowed him to create his own unique way of dancing (Ask anyone : ).
He considers himself a pure product of the social dance culture.
He does not fancy reproducing what others do, especially since they will probably be way better than him at doing so.
However he loves to understand and discuss how one moves/leads/follows in order to apply, use, and modify the concepts at work.
He is passionate about teaching and interacting with people, maybe even more than he loves to partner dance.

The first time they met, the quality of the connection and the partnership was excellent. Now these are unbelievable.
The merging of two worlds. A new one with an old one.
Two approaches that are fairly similar in the execution but both deeply rooted in different places, different times.

Daniel Larsson

With inspiration from the original Hoofers, Daniel is one of the dancers that still working in the style and rhythm heritage that once was created by the legends during the era of swing. To dance and to spread the traditional dance style built on rhythm gives him inspiration and the power in life. His ability to dance lots of different styles make him a respectful dancer. As well as a broad variety of Tap styles Daniel also dance traditional Lindy Hop, Charleston, Jazz and is a well educated Modern Jazz & Ballet dancer.
He works professionally at theatres in the musical scene where not only dancing, but also singing and acting is a part of his profession. He´s been working in shows such as Crazy for You, Love Never Dies, Singing in the Rain, Guys and Dolls, Producers, Chicago, La Cage aux Folles, Beauty and the Beast, Grease and many others. Daniel is also in to choreography and he choreographed musicals like The Wild Party, Spelling Bee and Rebellas Skatt.

"Never stop learning” is Daniels guiding principle and motto. He loves taking classes from the best teachers and continue his work to get better and better!